“ʻAu ma ka huaʻana
Kai Koʻo ka pali
Pihapiha o ʻeleʻele
Ke kai o Makaʻukiu
ʻAole au e hopo i ka loa
O Honokaneiki
I kane la ʻolua
I wahine la wau
[NBE: 48]
To swim around the obstacle
Where the ocean beats on the cliff
Where the depths are completely dark
This is the sea of Makaʻukiu, the fear-detecting shark
I will not fret in the length it takes
To arrive at the Bay-of-Limited-Consciousness
For both of you conduct yourselves analytically,
I rely on intuition.
To take a short route of a long journey requires that the inherited fears
of the deep unknown be slaughtered without a doubt.
Dalliance could be the terminus of the expedition toward maturation.
~Taupouri Tangaro,
Lele Kawa -Fire Rituals of Pele
”There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique. And if you block it, it will never exist through any other medium and it will be lost... You have to keep yourself open and aware to the urges that motivate you. Keep the channel open.”
~Martha Graham”
Itʻs a sunny cold morning in Oak Park. Iʻm feeling like it should be spring already, but itʻs cold like winter outside. I feel sluggish, stuck, like my blood is running too thick in my veins...like a bear just awakening from a deep winter sleep. I think I have a case of spring fever.
Last Sunday, my friend Maia Duerr presented a wonderful workshop, Creating Work That Matters from her new book, Work That Matters. I learned about 6 Keys to a Liberation-based Livelihood. I especially like the first one, " Become Intimate with Your Core Intention."
Maia defines intimacy as, "... a familiarity that comes about when we are willing to be completely honest with ourselves, augmented with a healthy dose of radical self-acceptance. Itʻs kind of like coming out of the shower and standing in front of the mirror, looking at your naked body, noticing that flabby spot by your tummy or that scar on your leg and being completely okay with all of it."
Taking a journey through your inner world takes courage because it may be difficult to look at events in your past, but you will get more familiar/intimate with the ingredients that come together to form your Core Intention.
Maia says that your core intention lives inside you at an emotional level. Itʻs where you feel the most alive to yourself and to the world around you. I got some clarity about my intention at the workshop. Itʻs to nourish others. I added a vow to nourish myself so I can nourish others.
The other Key that I loved was "Make Friends with Uncertainty." This key is also the first of three tenets of the Zen Peacemakers. They call it "Not-Knowing." Bernie Glassman, co-founder of the Zen Peacemakers, describes it like this: "Not-Knowing is entering a situation without being attached to any opinion, idea, or concept. This means total openness to the situation, deep listening to the situation."
One of the foundational practices at our Zen Life & Meditation Center, Chicago is practicing this Openness. Meditation is practicing openness and deep listening. Itʻs hard to listen if youʻre not open. Meditation helps to ground our fragmented minds so we can focus, open and listen.
Openness resonates with the foundational practice of Aloha at Halau i Ka Pono. The words respect, deep underlying love, and compassion arise when I think of practicing aloha and openness. Openness comes when you work with Not Knowing.
Bernie says "Not-knowing has nothing to do with knowledge. My sense is that one should have as much knowledge as possible Learn as many languages as you can. Study as many fields as you can. Penetrate as deeply as you can. Learn all the tools and the techniques...Not-Knowing is simply not being attached to any particular piece of knowledge. In the same way, it is also not rejecting any piece of knowledge. You hear something and say ʻAh! Thatʻs ridiculous! Forget it!ʻ If you hear something, try responding, ʻWell maybe that is possible also.ʻ or ʻOh! Thatʻs another way of looking at it.ʻ"
Otherwise itʻs easy to get stuck. And I also respect being stuck. Albert Einstein said, "Once we accept our limits, we go beyond them."